Category Archives: Native American culture

Guided walk on trails into the spectacular red sandstone canyon (equipment brought by truck; transportation option for those who choose)
Two nights camping (final night motel/optional camping)
Traditional sweat “bath” (lodge)
Day of solitude at Spider Rock
Day of service on a weaver’s family farm in the Canyon
Cost: $615 Does not include: transportation to and from Chinle, AZ, last night in motel (free camping option available), meals outside the canyon, gratuities to guides

To register: Deposit to save a space for you on this journey is $200 (trip is limited to 14 participants). Remainder is due September 19, 2017. Make checks payable to: Earth Walks/PO Box 8534/Santa Fe, NM 87504. (A limited number of partial work exchange scholarships may possibly be available.)

From there cross the Chuska mountains to the town of Chinle. Dine (Navajo) friend Daniel Staley and his family will guide us into the spectacular red sandstone canyon to his family land where we will be camping. Those who wish will hike to the site; others can ride vehicles which will be carrying our camping gear. The first evening we will participate in sweat lodge, a powerful way to begin our stay in this land which has been sacred to local people for so many generations. (Those who wish can stay outside the sweat and assist with the fire and prayers.) Meals in the canyon will be a group activity (preparation and clean up.)

Friday, October 20 we travel by truck to the Spider Rock for contemplation and time exploring the spectacular area around Spider Rock in the quiet of the canyon.

Saturday, October 21 we visit Kathryn Pemala who has been a long time weaver on her family farm in the canyon. An important element of every Earth Walks is “service learning”–learning about traditional cultures while we offer service and “return the gift” of living in this great land. We may be clearing weeds from farm land and orchards, helping with the animals, doing repairs or a variety of other activities. Kathryn will share her method and meaning of weaving with us and we will share lunch together as well.

Kathryn Paymella, Dine (Navajo) Weaver

Our final evening, participants have the option of staying at the Sacred Canyon Lodge near the entrance of the canyon. There is free camping available adjacent to the Lodge. We depart on Sunday, October 22.

May 19-21, 2017

Join Earth Walks on both an outer journey to a remarkable ancient World Heritage Site and a journey of inner discovery in vast silence with the community of fellow travelers.

We’ll be guided by the Tesuque Pueblo sisters Bea Duran and Reyes Herrera and their family. They consider Chaco Canyon as ancestral home ground.

Our time will include guided walks through the ancient sites, time alone to experience the vast silence of the Canyon and group sharing and conversation around the evening fires and meal times. Bring a drum or musical instrument!

Cost: Sliding scale. $350 is the minimum, and if you can afford an additional amount it will help Earth Walks continue offering these journeys throughout the American Southwest. Includes all meals, Friday evening through Sunday morning; guiding services; campground fees. Does not include: transportation (by carpooling) entrance fees to Canyon, gratuities to guides.

For more information/registration: info@earthwalks.org

Earth Walks has been leading journeys through the Southwest and Mexico for over 20 years. For more information about our program, go to: http://earthwalks.org/

Register by March 17, 2017 for a wonderful experience in service learning at the Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico. We will join Roger Fragua and elders on a farm at the Pueblo planting seeds for the coming growing season. We will be joined by Pueblo youth and community members.

Roger has said, “Farming with nature (the root of organic farming) lies at the hear of practices used by native farmers in the Southwest for millennia. Traditional cultural farming can teach us a great deal about how to build a resilient and regenerative agriculture.”

The day of service is part of a three day retreat sponsored by Earth Walks of Santa Fe. It will include a flute making workshop with Pueblo artist Marlon Magdalena. Lodging will be at the Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs.

Santa Fe New Mexico has been recognized with the “Sense of Place” award by National Geographic Magazine. The award is bestowed on an organization or place that enhances cultural authenticity and supports historic monuments, vernacular architecture, indigenous heritage and artistic traditions.

Let Earth Walks be your guide through Santa Fe and the Southwest United States country. Experience the land, people and culture of the spectacular country. We can provide a wonderful experience! You can reach us at earthwalks1@info.org

Flute Making and Farming at the Jemez Pueblo, New Mexico

March 30-April 2, 2017

Join us for this special opportunity in creative arts and service learning. We’ll be based at Bodhi Manda Zen Center in Jemez Springs, NM with opportunity for rest, relaxation and participation in meditation practice if you wish. Abbess Jiun Hosen will warmly welcome the group and explain their traditional practices at Bodhi.Healing hot springs are located at the Center, adjacent to the Jemez River.

Friday, March 31 we will meet with Jemez Pueblo flute maker and player Marlon Magdalena. Marlon says, “I proudly participate in all aspects of Jemez Life; for instance, I speak the Jemez Language, I plant Jemez corn, sing Jemez songs, and dance Jemez Dances. I am proud that I am from a place that still continues our ancient ways of life.”Marlon has been an artist for much of his life and creates paintings and traditional crafts. He also makes and performs on a wide variety of hand-carved flutes. He will lead us in the making of traditional cane flutes and explain the important meaning of flutes in the life of Pueblo people. (See: http://www.aluaki.com/bio.php )

Saturday, April 1 the group will enjoy a time of service with Jemez Pueblo resident Roger Fragua on his farm, helping prepare the fields for spring crops and learning about traditional values. Roger has said, “Farming with nature (the root of organic farming) lies at the heart of practices used by native farmers in the Southwest for millennia. Traditional farming can teach us a great deal about how to build a resilient and regenerative agriculture.”Sunday, April 2 following breakfast, the group will depart. Participants are welcome to linger longer at Bodhi if they choose.

Cost: $525 Includes dorm style lodging three nights (individual rooms available for additional cost); delicious vegetarian meals Thursday noon through Sunday morning, flute making materials. Transportation: on own or by carpooling.

In September 2016, Earth Walks traveled to the spectacular Canyon de Chelly with 12 participants. It was a deeply memorable time, which included camping in the canyon under a blanket of stars, Dine (Navajo) friend and guide Daniel Staley playing his beautiful flute music to the echoes of the notes and his ancestors and a day of service on the family farm of Kathryn Pemala.

Our canyon campsite was on Daniel’s grandparents’ land where he maintains a fruit orchard and a traditional hogan.

One magical evening found us around the campfire with Daniel playing his flute and singing traditional Dine chants in his native language. One participant had just acquired her first drum and she sent it around the group, asking each person to add their own drum beat, song or words to empower it for future drumming. The group spent a day of solitude near the powerful Spider Rock. That evening the group participated in a traditional sweat lodge. Our final day in the canyon was spent in a service activity on the family farm of Kathryn Pemala, long time weaver, who has lived her entire life in the canyon. As she weaves, she hears the voices and stories of her ancestors which are woven into the fabric of her work.

Dine (Navajo) weaver

The group help harvest corn and plums, pulled weeds and enjoyed conversation with Kathryn and family members. It was all too soon that we had to leave.

If you would like to join us on these or other journeys or create a special Earth Walks for yourself, family, friends or business please be in touch. Meanwhile, Happy Trails and may we all Walk in Beauty!

One of his current projects is a “coloring book” called “Ye Gods: Icons of Aztec Deities and Commentary” which is downloadable and totally free. Here’s the intro to the site:

I find the Aztecs’ pantheon larger, more diverse, and flat-out scarier than that of any other culture I know of in the world. Indeed, the Hindus may have a dozen or two deities, including fairly weird ones, and the Egyptians kept a veritable divine zoo, but the Aztecs worshiped around sixty divinities, many right up there with your worst nightmares. In that pinnacle civilization of the Americas, the uniquely human propensity to personify (whether singly or multiply) the divine, the ineluctable, and/or the supernatural, ran hog wild.

The ancient Mexican culture was of tremendous influence in the American Southwest, including New Mexico. It’s iconography and mythology pervades much of the culture still today. It’s fascinating stuff. Richard’s work and the rest of his blog might be of interest. He’s written several scholarly books on Native America that are also available to the public. Here’s one image from the coloring book: